Once a year, FSV Mainz 05 lives up to its reputation as a carnival club when the so-called carnival game day is celebrated in a colorful setting. A significant part of the audience comes into the arena in costume, where before kick-off even more mood songs are played, speakers appear and the players wear a special four-color jersey. Only bad if it dampens the mood on such a holiday.
After the 0-1 defeat against Werder Bremen on Saturday, there is a growing danger that the normally cheerful zero-five team will be relegated at the end of the season after 15 uninterrupted years in the Bundesliga. Too much is going wrong with the Rhine-Hesse people, who are working in vain on the turnaround like a plumber who has been called in when a water pipe bursts and has forgotten his toolbox. On the pitch it looks like this team is fighting back – but unlike three years ago during a fabulous comeback under Bo Svensson, there is no real plan. Above all, there is a lack of goal threat.
“A lot of passion, a lot of effort. But not enough to win, too hectic and too imprecise. Today was supposed to be the starting signal in the fight to stay in the league, but it went wrong,” said sporting director Martin Schmidt, disillusioned. Coach Jan Siewert was brief: “I will convert the extreme anger in my stomach into courage.” The next chance for his shockingly weak ensemble will come “very quickly”: the catch-up game against Union Berlin next Wednesday (6:30 p.m.) will decide whether the hangover in this club gets worse because of the foolish goings-on. Siewert confirmed that for now it can only be a matter of reaching the relegation place: “As of now we are where we are. We have to face reality.”
Mainz simply doesn’t score – despite 23:6 shots on goal and 11:1 corners
Nothing illustrated the dreary present more vividly than the curious goal conceded after less than two minutes. Mainz’s Anthony Caci overzealously shot at his teammate Tom Krauss in his own penalty area, and Bremen’s national striker Marvin Ducksch skillfully scored from the turn. The presenter and Werder fan Arnd Zeigler once invented the section “Poop Goal” for such actions in his popular TV show “Zeigler’s Wonderful World of Football” – the Mainz entry Nadiem Amiri has now also used this term. Of course, Mainz still had almost the entire game time to at least equalize. But the team, which was too harmless in the end, did not manage to score, despite 23:6 shots on goal, 11:1 from corners and 60 percent possession of the ball.
The Mainz coach Jan Siewert (left) needs to talk to referee Benjamin Brand (right) after the end of the game.
(Photo: Torsten Silz/dpa)
“We were clearly the better team. I’ve now found out firsthand that we need more luck this season,” said Amiri, who had just joined the team from Leverkusen. The midfielder immediately caught the eye as a strong driver who didn’t go unnoticed by the fundamental obstacles in the new environment: “I think I was able to give the team something. You can tell that many players have one block or another.” With Amiri, Jessic Ngankam, who was brought in from Frankfurt, was immediately in the starting line-up, who remained largely inconspicuous and, like his strike colleagues Ludovic Ajorque and Karim Onisiwo, missed an equalizing chance. A point win against strangely passive guests would definitely have been deserved.
Three points despite poor performance: Werder is happy about a “dirty win”
At Werder Bremen they were surprised that their worst performance of the year brought them their third success in a row. Two insurmountable central defenders (Anthony Jung, Marco Friedl) and a convincing goalkeeper (Michael Zetterer) were enough to guarantee a “dirty victory” (Ducksch), which coach Ole Werner was happy to take with him: “We didn’t play our best football, but we are as a group remained stable in organization and communication.”
And because “a lot of luck” (Werner) came along, the Werder supporters who had arrived in state and who had initially put up a huge banner for the club’s 125th anniversary cheered wildly. The founding date of the currently best-placed northern club is February 4th, 1899, and the whole thing will only be celebrated at the home game against 1. FC Heidenheim and with a green and white party in the Alte Werft next Saturday. If the fourth three-pointer in a row is achieved in the Weser Stadium, the atmosphere in Bremen should be at least as good as in any carnival stronghold.